Some of the Bay of Islands Singers at a rehearsal for their performance of Handel's Messiah, under the direction of John Jackets. Photo / Supplied
From remnants to raiments
A shop in York Street in Russell, which is run entirely by volunteers, is called FiXation. It sells remnants that have been reworked to become raiments.
The entire raison d'etre of the store is to stop some of the waste fabric from going into landfill. They estimate that in the six months they have been operating, they have saved eight cubic metres of clothing from being dumped in the ambiguously named recycling station.
At the store, they also conduct sewing lessons and teach both children and adults how to recycle clothing, buttons, belts and other accessories.
Chief among the volunteers is Christine Angell, who said apart from reworking the clothing, they are teaching children to appreciate the garments they wear and not to discard them when they think the clothes are finished.
"Over the next ten years, second-hand fashion will outstrip bought-new, and that will help save the planet," she said.
Late in October, FiXation held a fashion parade in the Russell school hall, with all proceeds from the evening going to the school to help develop the playground. There was day-wear, lunch-wear, dinner-wear and, naturally, beach-wear on show, and all models were volunteers.
Two of the garments paraded were jackets made from recycled denim by the local priest in Russell, Paula Frankin. She said she was inspired by the television series British Sewing Bee.
"It was an opportunity to do something in denim, to mix and match the fabric and to have the jackets fully lined," she said.
Around 70 people were in attendance on the night. The amount raised for the school was over $2,000, with more to come from the clothes that didn't sell on the night, which will be returned to the shop.
Russell author launches new book
He's a businessman, a community volunteer, and now he's an author.
Gray Mathias was well-established in the meat industry where he made his name before retiring to Russell. Now he has penned his first book - an action novel called Rook's Enigma.
Judd Rook is an international meat trader - no surprise there, given Gray's background - but the author says any resemblance to the protagonist stops at chapter two, and Judd Rook is not like him.
In the story, Rook is going about his business when the Berlin Wall falls, and he is pulled into a global intrigue not of his making. He manages to turn the tables on his rogue conspirators by being ever-alert to a deal.
According to the back page blurb, the "character has been constructed with the temperament and personality of a Jack Ryan or a Simon Templar with a gripping intercontinental plot".
Gray Mathias says he wasn't planning on being a writer, but he started "something" and realised he was out of his depth.
"I read Hemingway on Writing - great one-liners - and I went through two editors before I discovered Sue's writing class and went forward from there."
His publisher, Sue Fitzmaurice of Rebel Magic Books, said Mathias was a great learner.
"I gave him feedback and he applied himself brilliantly," she said. "It's exciting to be able to help someone achieve what they want."
Gray Mathias is already working on a second book which will be a sequel to Rook's Enigma, and also on an autobiography, which may or may not see the light of day.
Rook's Enigma is available from Russell Bookshop and Amazon.
Messiah by the Bay of Islands Singers
'The choral work that unites' is how Handel's Messiah has been described. The Bay of Islands Singers are set to perform the work on Sunday 27 November at the Turner Centre.
It's the third time they have performed Messiah with an orchestra. The first time was in 2012, and they repeated it again in 2016.
There is a quartet of soloists for the 2022 production.
Soprano Elizabeth Mandeno is a Freemasons Opera Artist with the New Zealand Opera and an Emerging Artist award-winner from Dame Malvina Major ONZ GNZM DBE.
The alto soprano is Sarah Court, who holds music degrees from Otago University and Waikato University. She has studied at the Prague Conservatoire, and later graduated from the Queensland Conservatorium with a Doctor of Musical Arts.
Tenor Lachlan Craig is a former pupil of the Voices NZ Chamber Choir and sang with the New Zealand Opera in their recent production of Verdi's Macbeth.
Bass Thomas Røshol was born in Norway and studied at The University of Tromsø, the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi, and the State University of Music and Performing Arts in Stuttgart.
Over the past decade, the BOI Singers and the director, John Jackets, have built musical links with many professional musicians from Northland and Auckland, who regularly come to Kerikeri to work with the choir. Performing major choral works like the Messiah with a full orchestral accompaniment is a rare treat for amateur choirs such as this.
After the Messiah, the singers will perform traditional carols on Tuesday 13 December, with audience participation encouraged, to celebrate the start of the Christmas Season.
Visit turnercentre.co.nz to find out more.
Heritage cafés needing help
Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga is hiring, and is particularly interested in hearing from people who can tell a good yarn or are keen to learn how to make decent coffees in the Far North.
Roles available include visitor hosts, who welcome visitors and lead tours of the properties, telling the unique stories of these special places. They are also seeking staff for two cafés – the Honey House at the Kerikeri Mission Station and the French Coffee House at Pompallier Mission.
Heritage New Zealand isn't the only organisation wanting to recruit staff for the summer. Around the country, a shortage of workers has impacted businesses involved in hospitality and tourism in particular.
According to Heritage New Zealand's manager assets North, Natalie McCondach, training is provided with regular hours over the summer.
"If famliy or friends are looking for a bit of extra income over the summer season, and enjoy sharing the Northland experience with others, then this could be ideal," she says.
Visit www.heritage.org.nz/about-us/job-vacancies to find out more.
Feeling the fear and doing it anyway
Liz Greening lives at Te Waihapu, near Russell, with her husband Terry and three individual cats, all rescue animals. But she has a fear.
She is scared of heights - but nevertheless has volunteered to jump out of a plane on December 3 as a fundraising exercise for the SPCA.
"The whole idea of jumping from an airplane scares me to death because I'm afraid of heights, so it will take me right out of my comfort zone," she said.
She was a volunteer worker for the SPCA when it was based in Waimate North Road, and since then, she has donated regularly to the cause.
Her objective is to raise $800, in which case she will get a credit towards her jump, with the rest going to the SPCA. At the time of writing, she had raised over half the amount and was hopeful of hitting her target.
She says at 76 years old, she has so far resisted anything to do with heights. All that will change at the beginning of December.
"It's all for a good cause," she says magnanimously.
'At what point do we say enough is enough?'